More seriously, they send only sterilized landers to Mars, to avoid killing all life there (if there is any), and to avoid the problem of finding in a few years the contamination we sended there. More info https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Planetary_protection
Given that the "percentage of stars with planets" part of the Drake equation has recently been determined to be close to 100%, Panspermia is starting to feel more and more likely.
I think by "survive" they mean that yeast spores can briefly be put in a "mars jar" and then be revived, not that they can become metobolicaly active, or even last for an extended time on mars
Big difference between "some organisms hitched a ride and didn't immediately die" and "we created a self sustaining ecosystem that will spread across a wide area in a human relevant period of time." The venn diagram of organisms that can survive on mars, those that can use martian conditions to produce all the energy and nutrients they need to survive long term, and those that would be likely to contaminate a spacecraft likely doesn't have a lot of overlap.
At the end of the day, there are tons of organisms, many of which can survive epic conditions. My personal favourite is still Deinococcus radiodurans but there are many other contenders.
This here is odd because it seems to follow a "life must be everywhere". I never understood this. Aka NASA wants to find life elsewhere, but ... why? Life is already here and evolution occurs. See dinosaur. So, adaptability is an intrinsic property. Why does it have to be shown that yeast can adapt to martian conditions? Do we want to grow yeast on mars? And if the question is humans on mars, why would yeast matter? The conditions do not allow humans to live on mars, unless sheltered. Even genetically modified humans will most likely not be able to live on mars freely. The temperature alone makes this impossible:
You'd need to be in a suit all of the time or in some building with higher temperature. Mars is not Earth. What is the point of having some bacteria or yeast on mars?
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[ 4.2 ms ] story [ 37.2 ms ] threadSurely there's nothing for it to eat there yet though.
That's all.
It seems unlikely to be possible to completely prevent all lifeforms from hitching a ride
This here is odd because it seems to follow a "life must be everywhere". I never understood this. Aka NASA wants to find life elsewhere, but ... why? Life is already here and evolution occurs. See dinosaur. So, adaptability is an intrinsic property. Why does it have to be shown that yeast can adapt to martian conditions? Do we want to grow yeast on mars? And if the question is humans on mars, why would yeast matter? The conditions do not allow humans to live on mars, unless sheltered. Even genetically modified humans will most likely not be able to live on mars freely. The temperature alone makes this impossible:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Climate_of_Mars#Temperature
You'd need to be in a suit all of the time or in some building with higher temperature. Mars is not Earth. What is the point of having some bacteria or yeast on mars?